COMMUNITY FORUM

adding a hot water loop to existing steam system?

I added a kitchen addition to my home, which is heated with steam. The plumber recommended running a hot water loop off of the bottom of the boiler. The kitchen is the coldest part of the house and the thermostat there seems to be driving the entire system. The result is that the rest of the house is overfiring and is ten degrees warmer. We recently discovered that the original thermostat was wired into the same wire as the new thermostat. If we wire it back to the burner instead of the water pump, will we have tow zones? One plumber said we would and that the problem would be solved because the boiler won't heat the water to boiling in attempting to heat the kitchen. This doesn't make sense to me. A second plumber says that in order to have two zones, we need to take the hot water loop off and add a second boiler. Otherwise, the kitchen will continue to drive the system and the other rooms will still be warmer. He says the boiler will fire to run the kitchen but it will eventually produce steam. Does anyone know what to do? I hate to buy a new boiler. Would it be cheaper/could we convert to all forced hot water?